Bomb joke may bring expulsion

A Hononegah junior also faces a criminal charge in the incident.

He said it was just a joke. But Noah Boyer isn?t laughing anymore.

During an Oct. 24 online conversation, Boyer, a junior at Hononegah High School, joked to a friend that another student looked ?weird enough to bomb the school.?

Police found out about the conversation while it was unfolding. Now Boyer faces a criminal charge and possible expulsion from school for what he said was a misinterpreted joke and a little fun gone awry.

New safety frontier
?I didn?t really do anything,? Boyer, 16, said. ?I didn?t threaten the school. I didn?t purposefully try to scare anyone.?

The incident marks a new frontier in school safety, one in which school officials take any suspicious comment ? even a joke made over the Internet ? seriously, Rockton Police Chief Stephen Dickson said.

Boyer said his expulsion hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday. Hononegah administrators said they could not confirm the hearing and declined to comment on the incident.

?It?s a student matter, and we cannot discuss it in public at all,? Associate Principal Ehren Jarrett said Thursday. ?It?s a student privacy issue.?

Boyer was arrested for disorderly conduct, which happens whenever ?a person does any act in such an unreasonable manner that they alarm or disturb another and provoke a breach of the peace,? said Pamela Wells, assistant state?s attorney for Winnebago County.

Internet chat
The state?s attorney?s office is still determining whether Boyer?s case is severe enough to warrant a formal court trial, said Wells, who declined to comment on the specifics of Boyer?s case as it is still pending.

In his Internet conversations, Boyer said, he made it clear to his friend that there were no bomb threats against Hononegah, and his accusations were all in jest. Boyer and his friend know each other through school and like to talk on the Internet, Boyer said. Boyer does not know the third student, whom he did not identify during the online conversation.

The transcript of one conversation, provided to the Register Star by Boyer, reads ?there is no bomb.? The chat took place over the networking program AOL Instant Messenger. ?i was messing around.?

Boyer said his friend?s parents called Rockton police after they got wind of the conversation, which happened over the course of about two hours. The two were in the middle of playing the video game Halo, a science-fiction, first-person shooter game that allows players to chat with each other during simulated combat.

The conversation reads:

Friend: anywho, did you tell someone about that guy?

Boyer: lol no

Friend: ... do it

Friend: whats his name?

Friend: Noah

Friend: whats his name?

Boyer: nvm it a joke dude he looked weird

Police arrived at Boyer?s friend?s house first, where they read the students? conversation, Dickson said. They then moved on to Boyer?s house the same night, where they were told the accusations were jokes meant to be funny, Dickson said.

?Kids being kids?
The next day, Hononegah High School?s school resource officer questioned Boyer and determined that there were no real bomb threats and the school was not in danger, Dickson said.

?It?s kids being kids,? Dickson said. ?Sometimes they don?t make the best decisions. Sometimes they say things that are inappropriate, and they need to understand that you can?t say those words today without getting in some kind of trouble.?

Jarrett would not say whether Boyer?s specific incident is worthy of expulsion. That is up to the School Board, which will make its decision based on a report provided by an expulsion officer after a hearing, Principal Judy Rigby said.

A passage in the school?s student handbook pertaining to false bomb threats reads: ?Any student that falsifies school documents or information to a school official will be subject to disciplinary action.? Listed under ?severe examples? of such activity are ?filing a false police report, false allegations against students or staff members, false fire alarm or initiation of a bomb threat.?

Possible penalties
Boyer also could face a formal court trial or public service, probation, counseling or a number of other services as a result of his conversation, Wells said.

?I can?t tell you whether they?ve determined whether this minor needs any of those services,? Wells said.

Boyer?s grandfather, Jim Boyer, said he has hired an attorney to represent Boyer at his hearing Monday. Jim Boyer said he disagrees with the way school officials and police handled the incident.

He also said Boyer?s friend?s parents should have called him instead of police to sort out the situation.

?I don?t know why it?s even got to this point,? Boyer said. ?People overreacted about it.?